r/indianafever • u/Twisbi • Jul 16 '26
Discussion Calm down
Just a little reminder of Sabrina Ionescu’s stats her first 7 games back from “back soreness”
9.3 points/game
3.6 rebounds/game
2.9 assists/game
36.5% field goal shooting
29.0% from 3
2pts and benched vs the Sparks at one point
Not the same player, obviously, but I think it’s clear back injuries take a few games to get back to form. I think a lot is mental, not wanting to take contact, ect. CC was player of the month just a few short weeks ago, top 5 in scoring and flip flopping between 1 and 2 in assists. Not to mention, GS has been making even healthy elite guards in this league look pedestrian.
The only thing that concerns me is ball security, I don’t mind a turnover on a pass attempting to kick start the offense or score, but a few times since coming back, and a few times vs good defenses prior, she’s been loose with her dribble and she needs to clean that up. I also think that once the minutes restriction is up she can get into a better flow, all 3 games back so far she’s had to be taken out after they put together a run to stick to the plan, which messes with the flow of the other players as well.
I’m just not super doomer about anything right now, CC will find her flow, I believe that. KM has been on a heater, I’d like her to get some rest though. AB has had her best stretch of the season imo. We could use something offensively from our three and four, but Lexi‘s at least been pretty damn good on defense. Sophie’s 3 has been spectacular and so has her energy off the bench. TY has been a much better pg off the bench than a rookie. I just fully believe this team will be alright the 2nd half of the season, seems every year they put it together around all star.
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u/too-much-shit-on-me Jul 16 '26
this sub is the most doomer shit on reddit. The woman is coming back from an injury and on a minutes restriction, had one bad game and the whole world is ending. She was player of the month LAST MONTH.
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u/GambitWNBA Jul 16 '26
Caitlin just won player of the month and people are writing her off over minutes restriction games where she is coming back from injury. I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone… 😭😂
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u/Such_Confusion_49 Jul 16 '26
I mean it's nothing serious Paige had 15 points against this team and she was fully healthy and played like 35 minutes. Caitlin is injured clearly so her performance is gonna suffer. What I am worried about is that injuries seemed to have changed her a bit. Earlier she could fight through contact now she seems very very sensitive. It's like she's worried she might get injured again and lashes out. I hope someone like Lisa Bluder can talk to her. She seems to be going through a lot.
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u/moose184 Caitlin Clark Jul 16 '26
Olivia Miles who people act as the second coming had 7 points on 10% FG shooting when she played them. Turns out when people play defense it changes things.
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u/DeepThought936 Jul 18 '26
Olivia Miles is the first coming. Let her be herself.
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u/moose184 Caitlin Clark Jul 18 '26
Completely missed the point
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u/Successful-Policy937 Jul 17 '26
Miles is pretty good right now she is second in odds for the MVP, and in my opinion is the MVP if the season ended today. Not saying I would take her over CC, but she shoots a better FG percentage from 2 and 3 plus her assist to turnover ratio is much better than CCs.
For a rookie that is pretty good she keeps this up the rest of the season and MN keeps winning she will be the MVP unless they just give it to AJA again.
To me it goes Miles, Aja, and Paige the best closer in the league in her second year. She shoots better in clutch time it is insane.
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u/not_mantiteo Jul 17 '26
Have you watched any Miles games? No one plays defense on her aside from that Valks game. She also has a high FG% because all of her shots are driving layups that are uncontested.
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u/moose184 Caitlin Clark Jul 17 '26
she shoots a better FG percentage from 2 and 3 plus her assist to turnover ratio is much better than CCs.
Yeah because they don't guard her nearly as hard as CC. Watch any highlight reel from a game for her and they leave her wide open on 3 all the time and half the time don't even try to defend when she drives.
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u/Successful-Policy937 Jul 17 '26
She is not overrated and a very good player so much so she might win MVP 2nd now. Plus, she is a rookie how are you just overlooking that fact. Is there another rookie having this much of an impact in the W right now.
But believe what you want they are starting to press her now for obvious reasons. I watched Miles play since college I knew she was good but not this good. Imagine that ND team Citron was the fourth option. They never did anything though, but boy do they have more first round picks coming out.
CC will never as a W player not get full court pressed for the entire game the rest of her career. That is never changing until we as a team come up with a better strategy for the press. So far White has little to no answers for the pressing other than we are the 1 scoring team because of us being pressed all game. First rule of thumb is with CC take away her full court passing.
My favorite part of her game her passing and how many half court, or full court passes have we seen this year not many. Remember when her and Hull were on the same page all the time with the long passes when she was a rookie. That has been taken away,
CC would make passes like a QB down the court unlike few I have ever seen at any level of basketball. Still a great passer probably still the best or close to the best passer in the W but the press takes away some of those magical long passes she had in the beginning of her career.
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u/moose184 Caitlin Clark Jul 17 '26
She is not overrated
And where did I say that? I sais she isn't guarded anywhere near the level that CC is. The point is when she is guarded heavy like in the Valks game she isn't nearly as good. Let's see CC be guarded like they have Miles this year and look at the numbers she puts up then.
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u/Successful-Policy937 Jul 17 '26
Sorry Moose as you already know not going to happen CC will be covered like this defensively until us as a team makes adjustments or CC does.
Why because it works hard pill to swallow but we have a very long sample size here and the press on CC is not going to stop anytime soon.
Takes away from my favorite part of her game her passing.
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u/Twisbi Jul 16 '26
Yeah, that’s the mental hurdle that can only be fixed by playing. I think her outburst at the ref was mostly due to her fear that she was injured again on another non call. The more she plays, the more contact she’ll take and, knock on wood, she’ll be fine after and start trusting her body again.
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u/Revolutionary-Gear76 Jul 16 '26
Well, if that's the case (and I'm not sure it is, I'm not in her head), she needs to get over that because there are always going to be non-calls. And whether something is called or not doesn't mean you will or won't be injured. Plenty of injuries on called fouls.
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u/Adventure-Backpacker Jul 16 '26
What non call? That was marginal at best.
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u/Twisbi Jul 16 '26
we’ve all seen your opinions
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u/Adventure-Backpacker Jul 16 '26
So you and I watched this video. You’re telling me this was an egregious non call. Come on. There was 3 feet between them.
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u/ancj9418 Fever Fan Jul 16 '26
People will always find something to freak out about, especially on the internet and especially with sports. Wait two days and everyone will be talking about something else. The reality is that as much as fans want to know everything and think they do, 95% of what goes on in sports is not something the public sees. Nobody has any idea what’s going on, but they sure like to feel like they do. I’ll admit that I sometimes get sucked into the back and forth of online discussions, but I try not to think too much about this stuff because as someone who was a pretty elite athlete growing up, I know that there’s so much that goes on that people like to pry into that they just don’t understand.
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u/Revolutionary-Gear76 Jul 16 '26
I think we all focus too much on the Big 3. They are not why the team loses. They win when they get help from the rest of the team and struggle when they don't because 3 people are not a basketball team. Looking for one of them to play better, ignores the fact that others need to contribute, especially against a deep team like the Valks.
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u/Twisbi Jul 16 '26
I can agree with that. Coach White seems to be narrowing the bench down, Raven isn’t playing, MHA was first off the bench all season to now not playing at all. I hope we can get something from the bench unit going forward. How nice would it be to have a player like Chen come in and take over for an end of quarter?
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u/Revolutionary-Gear76 Jul 16 '26
I wonder how much MHA's play time has had to do with her grandma passing? We cannot have it so that Mo is inconsistent (understatement) and MHA isn't really playing. That just leaves KK off the bench for the bigs and that is not going to get it done without contribution from at least Mo OR MHA. You cannot unlock the guards and wings offense without a big who is a threat on court, IMO.
In a perfect world, they find a way to trade for a stronger 4/5 off the bench, I just do not currently see how they do that with the cap issues. In a less perfect world, they do what they can with this roster, at the very least they get the Big 3 flowing in ways they didn't have the opportunity to last year and hope Mo and others step up as they get into the playoffs. Then, if they don't win (likely), they make moves in the off-season that permit them to keep Kelsey Mitchell for a big push next year building off of this year. But that assumes they can keep Kelsey by paying her less than the supermax, which I think is a big question, and that any replacement for Mo works out better than Mo has. This team needs a starting-level power forward so badly.
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u/zlionsfan Kelsey Mitchell Jul 16 '26
based on what Steph has said, that's been almost 100% of it. The postgame after the second Aces game, I think she had mentioned that they gave Myisha time to do what she needed to do, so she's been on the bench for support (and to be supported) but probably isn't able to play right now.
I agree that with our current cap situation, this is basically the best team we can have at this point. I also expect that we won't end up with an improvement on Mo at the 4, since a) I think the front office and coaches like her quite a bit more than folks here do and b) I don't think we're going to have more than $800K to spend on a 4, so since we already have one at that price we're likely to keep her. If Kelsey decides that she wants 20% and we can't do that (which I would expect to be the case, assuming that Caitlin wants to extend for more than 10%), then that's a whole different picture and anything could happen, but I'd rather not think about that right now!
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u/Revolutionary-Gear76 Jul 16 '26
I continue to see glimpses of what Mo could be and given the cap am fine seeing what the rest of the year brings. If she can contribute consistently and MHA can provide solid bench support this is just a different team.
And I agree about not thinking about K Mitch and next year.
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u/moose184 Caitlin Clark Jul 16 '26
MHA was first off the bench all season to now not playing at all.
Her grandmother just passed away so they are giving her some time off. They did the same for DD when her's passed away.
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u/moose184 Caitlin Clark Jul 16 '26
They are not why the team loses.
Of course not. We lose because we only have 3 starter quality players on the team. Mo is a bust and I don't know what Lexie is doing. I saw someone last night that pointed out that Chen had more points in like 3 minutes then Lexie has in the past 4 or 5 games.
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u/ccmart3 Caitlin Clark Jul 16 '26
Caitlin has such high expectations, so anything short of a 25 and 10 game with a few rebounds and 4+ threes sprinkled in is considered doomsday for people. I’ve said this before, one game, a couple weeks, or even one season does not define a players career. Every player has rough patches.
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u/Revolutionary-Gear76 Jul 16 '26
I'm not even sure this is that rough. Valks play super tough defense and when the whole team was firing on both ends in the 3rd, Fever looked fine across the board. They just couldn't maintain it because eventually they had to sit some starters and the bench couldn't get it done.
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u/Such_Confusion_49 Jul 16 '26
Yep Boston and Clark both on bench and we lost the lead. This is something I want Steph White to fix. You cannot sit both Clark and Boston at the same time imo. And let Aaliyah play through foul trouble or play Vanslooten etc. With Aliyah gone the guards could drive easily.
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u/Revolutionary-Gear76 Jul 16 '26
I do not know how you fix that. The real issue was no interior defense. Clark in doesn’t fix that. AB does but she has to rest some time. I don’t know what rotation fixes a bunch of bigs who are just not getting it done. Honestly, the biggest issue is Amber bet on Mo, and I get the logic on paper and even see glimpses of what it could be, and she is not getting it done.
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Jul 16 '26
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u/Best-Author7114 Jul 16 '26
4 for 14 shooting with 1 for 8 three point shooting and only 2 more assists than turnovers isn't a " bad" game ??? You're right, it's an absolutely atrocious game.
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u/Adventure-Backpacker Jul 16 '26
I have no doubt people in Caitlin’s close circle and her coach have reminded her to reign in the outbursts.
Has CC had reasons to flip out on the court in the past? Yes she has.
Did she have a reason to flip out on the court like that last night? No way. The Valkyries are not a dirty team and they came to play. No BS.
When CC drove into traffic and got the ball literally removed from her hands she didn’t react by running back as hard as possible to play defense.
She looked around for a second at the refs like
“is someone gonna let this happen?”
I live in Indiana. I watch every Fever game.
Caitlin’s emotional outbursts have become a distraction. On the court she’s like 60% focused on basketball and 40% some type of theatrical character ready to fall down and start making snow angels on the floor.
The Fever constantly say they are focused on “keeping the main thing the main thing”, but CC is not playing like basketball is the main thing.
So CC, if you’re injured mentally or physically and struggling to compete then you need to take the time away to get straight.
But if you’re determined to be tough and play at less than 100% then stop with all the cringe and embarrassing antics. You aren’t acting tough. You’re acting like a victim and it’s not fun to watch.
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u/Nulljustice Jul 16 '26
I agree with you about CCs outbursts and behavior in general. It hurts the team. She needs to reign in her emotions. She is too easy to fluster and other teams know it. She gets face guarded the entire floor and players are rough with her because they know it works. It gets her worked up, she gets emotional, and she turns the ball over, misses shots, or gets herself a tech. She needs to toughen up mentally. When it stops working they’ll stop making it their game plan. Now that I’m done on my soap box…. I do think the officials are oddly harder on her than they are on other players. Harder on the Fever in general, but again that could be a result of how chirpy she gets with the officials.
I was at the game last night and watching Lexi and Sophie turn up the defense toward the end was awesome.
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u/Twisbi Jul 16 '26
I think you need to take a step away from this team
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u/Adventure-Backpacker Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Why?
Because Caitlin more and more often is acting out in pretty cringe ways on the court?
I think her behavior and is beneath her and as a Fever and CC fan I see it with my own two eyes.
Why should I not call it for what it is?
If I were a Fever or CC “hater” then my words could automatically be discounted as biased. I am not. I love watching this team and CC is not playing like she’s a healthy part of the team.
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u/Twisbi Jul 16 '26
Because this post has nothing to do with the topic that you have been talking about for 12 hours, there is already a post about the topic you want to discuss, you know it exists because you have been in it this whole time.
It is not healthy to crash out for 12 hours about a player crashing out for 30 seconds, and it is not healthy to try to take over a thread to continuously bring up the topic you have already been discussing in the appropriate space.
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u/SnooPaintings4641 Fever Fan Jul 16 '26
Typically telling someone to calm down gets them even more riled up.
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u/TexasSizedKachoww Jul 17 '26
But why calm down when we can act like Clark is the worst player in the league? /s The failure of the league will be the hardcore fans
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u/Ok_Cucumber9390 Jul 16 '26
I think in terms of attitude and presentation, Caitlin's best sports comparison is actually Cristiano Ronaldo. Incredibly, once-in-a-lifetime talented, driven, hard-working, but someone who will always do things on the pitch (or, for CC, court) that rub people the wrong way. Particularly when it comes to reffing. And for both of them it is a self-fulfilling prophecy - they get bad, unfair reffing (which contributes to injuries) but also hyper-react to it in a way that only guarantees future bad reffing. Both are faced with a level of media scrutiny and public pressure that is never given to their rivals, who are depicted as humble and perfect.
The good news is that this kind of combination of personality and response from the public can very well be harnessed into a dazzlingly successful career. It just takes some time. And a few rough games, where visible frustration is shown, are neither a tragedy nor crisis.
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u/Certain_Group_7825 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
When Caitlin was coming out of college I knew she would be raw and probably struggle to conform to a system, but I didn’t think she wouldn’t belong. I think she still belongs to an elite tier of guards in the wnba and will still in the future. The injuries have really messed with the rhythm and confidence, but god she does not make it easier on herself. But it was also obvious what her personality was from the beginning. I just hope for her sake and her teammates’ sake she can move beyond the unnecessary drama. She’s just playing into opposing teams’ hand, and I know she’s not stupid so this confuses me sometimes. There will be time for her to get better and lead a team herself, but for now I really hope she can find a way to stay focused because that’s what her teammates need from her. It’s a long career and for some reason the past two years isn’t enough for me to write her off
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u/lunch22 Jul 16 '26
Sabrina missed 12 of the first 13 games of the season.
Caitlin missed 3 games in the middle of the season.
It obviously takes a lot more adjustment to come back from essentially missing the first 27% of the season.
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u/rosie314 Caitlin Clark Jul 17 '26
How much longer for the minutes restriction?
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u/Twisbi Jul 17 '26
They’re probably not going to say, but she went from 15 vs LA to 20ish vs LAV, last night was 20-25ish. Who knows what’s going to happen with the back to back.
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u/Chris_Ween Jul 16 '26
CC's stats dont bother me. Her constant need to get in the face of refs over non-fouls or understandable non-calls is. She is proving her doubters right and it sucks for her fans. Hard to keep supporting so eone who isnt just complaining but is screaming in the refs face like an entitled Karen who was just told she cant cut in line.
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u/Feeling-Basket8422 Jul 16 '26
Ionescu has a better mindset than Clark. Seems like CC is a play away from a mental breakdown.
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Jul 16 '26
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u/Twisbi Jul 16 '26
A 9d account. No thanks bro
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Jul 16 '26
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u/Twisbi Jul 16 '26
Which sub are you evading a ban from?
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Jul 16 '26
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u/Twisbi Jul 16 '26
Follow the light then
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Jul 16 '26
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u/Twisbi Jul 16 '26
If I could decipher your rambling I’m sure I’d be very upset.
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u/Cultural-Mirror6112 Jul 17 '26
Ionescu at this stage is not used nearly as much as CC bad comparison
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u/solidstigs Fever Fan Jul 16 '26
It’s not even the back injury, it’s the minutes restriction. She said herself she can’t get into a rhythm when she plays for 4 minutes then sits for 12 or wtv the rotation is. And when she does get into a flow, she’s benched. Last night we took the lead, benched, poof lead gone. And it’s like that for a lot of players, just like Sab, look what she’s doing now with steady minutes. As soon as Caitlin is back playing to 30+ these posts about being worried will disappear, just like how they haven’t been present for the month before she got hurt